Exchange Backup Question - Information Store vs. Mailboxes

[Jeremy_Flint]

We are currently backing up our Exchange(2k3) Information Store and not the individual mailboxes.

If something were to crash, would we be able to retrieve mailbox data from the information store?

What is the best process for backing up exchange data? Is it necessary to backup individual mailboxes, or is the Information store enough?

[John_Chisari]

You can restrive a mailbox from an IS store backup - much easier with Exchagne 2003 - you can use the Recovery Storage Group feature - http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/264815.htm
Note however you will need enough hard disk space on the server to be able to restore the IS.

Have a look at this technote on how to protect an Exchange 2003 server - http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/266074.htm - hopefully will answer most of your questions.

[SANDEEP_PILLAY]

Hi,

In addition to the above reply, the best process for backing up exchange data will depend on you importance. It is recommended to backup te information store only. You can however, backup the most important mailboxes only for quick recovery.

We hope this will help.

Please update us on the issue so that If the issue still persists we can troubleshoot the issue further.

If we do not receive your intimation within two business days, this post would be presumed to be answered and will be marked as assumed answered and archived.

Thanks

[Vidyaj__Patneka]

Hi,

Kindly update us on the issue.

[Danijel_Brncic]

so i understand it right, that i have to backup the mailboxes OR the information store? but not both of them together?

i backup all mailboxes and have also marked the information store... because i miss e.g. all the calendars or adressbooks in the mailbox-part... and these are included in the informattion store, or?

[Albert_Pantoja]

To add to this gentlemens questions, if you have W2k (not 2003) and posed the same question, what would you suggest?

[Danijel_Brncic]

Sorry AlbertP, but i do not understand what you want... :)

I´m using BE10 on W2k3 and Exchange 2k3 on W2k3... (If this question was for me...)

[John_Chisari]

No you can do both - it depends on how long you would want to wait to restore just 1 email message or a mailbox.
With 2003, you would just restore back the whole IS to the Recovery Storage Group.
With mailbox backups, you can just do a single item, mailbox etc, and it also does Calendar items as well.

[John_Chisari]

AlbertP

Again is depends on what you want to do.
With 2000 you would need a recovery server to restore the a mailbox or email if you only did the Information store backup.

[Danijel_Brncic]

thanks for reply... problem is that i do only see mailboxes, and no calendars or contact folders... i think that this thing has to be configured in exchange, that ther´s the problem... or?

[John_Chisari]

Not sure I get what you mean.
If you expand a mailbox, then Top of INformation Store, do you see the Calendar and Contacts folder?

[Danijel_Brncic]

ok, sorry, I forgot an importand thig: I talked about the group calendars / contacts. But the´re integrated in the onformation store? And i´m not able to backup them like mailboxes...?

[Renuka_-]

Hello,

If you expand a mailbox, then Top of INformation Store,you can see calendar, contacts folders. All these folders you can see individually can also be selected individually for backup

NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answeredand would be moved toanswered questions pool.

[Madhuri_Shenoy]

As per our previous reply, marking the case as "assumed answered" and moving it to "answered questions" pool.

[JW_Whitmarsh]

I'm currently running Exchange 5.5 (getting 2003 early next year). I just want to make sure I have this right: with my current setup, if I want to be able to restore the entire IS, I should back up the entire IS, and not all mailboxes. But, if I want to be able to restore an individual mailbox, I should back up the mailboxes. With just the IS, I cannot restore an individual box, correct (at least, not easily)? But this can be done with 2003? I hate to have to back up both the IS and all the mailboxes due to time constraints...

[Dave_Bunye]

Let me try another tact here to answer this question...

Exchange 2000 & 2003:

Information Store: Back this up ALWAYS! This will allow you to recover your database in the event of a disaster, as well as allowing you to restore ALL mailboxes (all at once that is)

Mailboxes: Back the Mailbox resource up in a seperate job if you will ever want to restore INDIVIDUAL mailboxes or messages. This is the only way to do individual restores. An Information Store restore will restore ALL mailboxes as part of the database restore.

For mailbox backups, you can use global excludes (** wildcard) to specify folders in all mailboxes not to be backed up. This is very useful to specify the Delete Items and Sent Items folders from all users since it will make the backups that much faster since there is less to backup. However, it is all up to you and if time is no issue, just do a full backup of mailboxes (no excludes) one a week, and incremental and differentials the other 6 days.

Backing up Mailboxes will backup all contacts, appointments, journals, etc. Nothing needs to be set up in Exchange.

Exchange 5.5

If you only backup you IS, then you could be in a world of hurt later. In 5.5 you need to back up the IS AND the DS (Directory). In 2000/2003 those two are combined to make the Information Store, but in 5.5 they are seperate.

Other than that, the mailbox type issues are all the same as noted above for 2000/2003.

Always make the IS (or IS/DS) seperate jobs. THere is nothing wrong with putting them together, but it is much easier to schedule and plan backup windows better if they are seperate. An Information Store backup will be MUCH faster than a mailbox backup. Putting them together will make for one long job! The mailbox backup is slow due to limitations of MAPI and how backups have to read each message.

Hope that clarifies thiggns a little bit.

[JW_Whitmarsh]

So with a full restore of the IS/DS, I could restore an individual mailbox by extracting it to a PST file, correct? The advantage in 2003 is being able to put the restored IS on the same server, versus building a second server in 5/5 or 2000. Do I have that right?

[Dave_Bunye]

Only with Exchange 2003 and a Recovery Storage Group. An IS/DS restore will restore all mailboxes simply because they are part of the database. The mailbox backups are specifically only the mailbox portion of the database, thus they can be enumerated down to the smaller parts.